


Across Galaxies

by e_dog



Series: Across The Universe [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/F, Growing Up, Minor Canonical Character(s), Young Kara Danvers, Young Lena Luthor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 12:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15885780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_dog/pseuds/e_dog
Summary: Before the obliteration of a planet, two girls discover each other across the galaxies. (Lena Luthor/Kara Zor-El)





	Across Galaxies

**Author's Note:**

> So, a little note. I’m not smart. Not science smart, at least. Well, maybe not smart smart either. But if it sounds like I’m being vague, I totally am. I just needed enough science-y words to get my story across. First thing I've posted anywhere in any capacity in a very long time. Be gentle.

Lena was smart. 

She knew it.  Lionel knew it.  Lillian knew it.  Lex too. 

It was actually bordering on genius levels, but she wasn’t really one to brag…too much.  In the beginning, she was excelling so well, she got bumped up a grade.  Then two. 

Her private school had actually requested, maybe more like pleaded with her to knock it down a notch.  Or twenty.  Because Lena was not only ~~smart~~ a genius she was also intimidating.  At a respectable five foot six, her eyes were like ice and her smirk like fire.  The male teachers were creepily voracious, the female ones were on edge.  The boys were wimps and the girls were snobs.  That left little room for Lena to make friends. 

But she didn’t need friends.  A Luthor didn’t need friends. 

Yet, she did dial back.  She took a year off because why not.  Lillian whisked her away to Paris for a few weeks.  It wasn’t all that horrible. 

She was turning 19 soon and would now be graduating with those of her own age and as much as she hated feeling inferior, it was comforting to know she could blend.  If need be, she could be a teenager and occasionally meet other teenagers at a party or a football game.  Maybe they weren’t her friends, but even a Luthor needed connections.  Lena simply needed. 

And this need only made the inky sky dotted with flickering bodies all that more desirable. 

Lena had made it a habit of sneaking into Luthor Corp on Saturday nights to appreciate the observatory.  And by ‘appreciate’, she really meant hack into the operating system and study the stars for herself.   The charts that wove through the planets and black holes and moons. 

This night she eyed the antenna controls. 

She had spent countless days looking.  Tonight, she wanted to try to listen. 

******

Kara was smart. 

As in, her mother and father ‘couldn’t hide their pride and were practically bursting at every political function’ smart.  Alura and Zor-El could light up an entire arena with their brightness.  Kara abhorred the attention. 

The other young Kryptonians regarded her with contempt.  It was awkward.  And her parents hardly helped matters with their gushing.  Only Jor-El really seemed to understand and she loved him for his compassion to her plight, but lately he had been distracted by the coming arrival of his son, already named Kal-El. 

Kara missed her uncle deeply.   

This latest event was tense, but the adults were doing their best to maintain a sense of normalcy.  Kara had tried to listen in on the conversations, but Alura and Zor-El had been tightlipped around her.  She wasn’t so blind that she couldn’t see their distress.  Something big was happening on her planet. 

As she lingered near the grandest feast she had seen in ages, contemplating what to eat and how much she could sneak back home, she felt a tap on her shoulder.  Startled, she turned around then smiled widely.  She jumped into her uncle’s arms.  “Jor-El!” 

He hugged her tightly, his robes almost seemed to bring her in closer and the warmth was comforting.  “Hello, little one.”  He pulled back some and smiled.  “Hungry?” 

Shyly, Kara nodded.  Her appetite was not to be underestimated.  “I know I had my share, but it was very good.” 

“Well, have this to settle that hunger,” Jor-El said, handing over one of her favorite treats.  “Don’t tell your mother.” 

She greedily took it, grinned at him.  “I won’t!” 

Then he held up a crystal.  A key to his laboratory!  He laughed as her eyes widened.  “Go on.  I’ll let your parents know where you are.  Just try not to start a fire this time.” 

“Thank you,” she said gratefully, hugging him and taking the crystal simultaneously. 

She dashed out of the room and called out, “Kelex!” 

“Yes, Kara Zor-El,” the robot assistant immediately flew to her side.  “How can I assist you?” 

“Take me to Jor-El’s laboratory,” Kara said, then added thoughtfully, “Please.” 

“Of course, Kara Zor-El,” Kelex replied.  He spun to face away from her.  She excitedly hopped onto his back and they sped away.  A Kelex wasn’t really supposed to be used as a vehicle, but she _was_ in a hurry. 

Soon enough, she was inside.  She eagerly eyed all of the stations around her before settling on her favorite.  She quickly found the necessary crystal and inserted it into the slot.  The projector immediately showcased her solar system.  It took a few more seconds but she found the spot where she last left off. 

“Show me star system 170.52.”

Soon she was face to face with a galaxy that held a beautiful spiral shape uniquely its own. 

******

It took an extreme amount of patience to listen to essentially nothing.  Lena was wearing the noise canceling headphones with her eyes closed as static would occasionally hiss ever so slightly.  It could be a space transmission.  It could also be the local radio tower.  She chuckled to herself as the slightest change in the audio had her heart racing at the thought that maybe she was hearing something from way out there…maybe another life trying to reach her.  Asking for help. 

And oh, if she didn’t want to do the same in return. 

“SOS,” she murmured out loud.  She opened her eyes and settled them on a console that had been collecting dust for years.  It was rarely used.  An antenna that had been heralded to breach the upper atmosphere and beyond.  Longingly she stared at it. 

Luthor Corp had only the best of technology.  ‘Rarely used’ didn’t mean ‘substandard’.  It just meant it had been used for its purpose and discarded.  She slid in the wheeled chair over to the more powerful antenna.  The screens lit up a bright blue and she plugged in the headphones.  The microphone was flipped on. 

And Lena shut her eyes again.  In her mind’s eye, she saw Lillian glowering at her.  Lionel and Lex were ignoring her.  The kids in the school were resenting her and she wanted to scream.  But she didn’t.  Slowly she leaned forward and whispered into the microphone, “Please.  Someone.  Save me.” 

******

A sound never goes unheard.  Even if the journey is jarring, tumultuous.  It can ride across the stars, the wave hitching a ride on a seamlessly endless stream.  But even streams eventually empty into a raging whirlpool. 

******

Kara heard the unusual sounds and it made her jump back from the projection. She was alone in here, aside from Kelex, and there really shouldn’t be any noise of any kind. 

She studied the projection of her curious galaxy and squinted her eyes some in thought.  She pushed some symbols and listened closely until she heard it again.  Another push here and then there put the sound on a loop. 

_Please.  Someone.  Save me._

She tried the sound on her tongue.  One last listen and Kara knew then that she was hearing someone’s voice speaking in a dialect she had never heard before.  How could that be?  She knew their satellites could pick up distant echoes, but she also knew all languages within her solar system.  

But star system 170.52 wasn’t in her solar system.  And she trained her uncle’s instruments in their direction.

She ended the loop and then repeated the words.  It was bizarre and she laughed with pure delight. 

She found a writing tool and some paper.  Only Jor-El kept items like this.  He enjoyed laying out his thoughts and musings on the flat surface.  He was old fashioned that way. 

She said the words out loud again, drawing the highs and lows.  She studied her lines.  The harder marks represented what she felt was an emphasis.  The curves for the elongated hisses.  It was kind of beautiful, in a way.  It felt like a piece of art. 

One last play and despite the crackles, the voice sounded young.  Female.  Soft and desperate in a couple of places. 

And just like that, her imagination pulled together a sorrowful story.  Someone out there was trying to say hello.  Maybe they were lost.  Maybe they wanted to be found.  Maybe they were alone and that thought sunk Kara’s expression into a frown.  Sometimes she felt alone.  How could she just return this message with silence? 

“You can do this, Kara,” she said to herself, gathering another crystal.  “Just don’t start a fire.”  She whipped around to find her faithful robot.  “Kelex, please record the following phrase.” 

“Ready to record, Kara Zor-El.” 

Kara barely hesitated, knowing exactly what she wanted to say, “Don’t be afraid.” 

******

Lena was feeling drowsy.  She had been sitting at the antenna for a couple of hours now.  She was picking up nothing, not that she expected much else.  It was a silly girl’s fantasy to think an alien would just chit chat with her.  To think an alien would grant her deepest of wishes to orchestrate an escape from this place. 

“Stupid,” she said.  Just as she went to pull the headphones away, the wave hit her ears.  She reared back in the chair pulling the headphones from her head as quickly as possible.  They fell to the ground with a soft thud as she stared wide eyed at the consoles, noting the last remnants of sound fading away on the screens.  

“No way,” she said aloud.  Her voice was deafening in the empty room.  She scrambled back to the console, the headphones back on her head rather lopsided and prayed she was still recording the ‘nothing’ she had been listening to all night.  She dragged the cursor backward and hit play.  She listened to it and felt herself smile.  “Wow.”  For a moment she could only grin idiotically.  Then she jumped into action, “Shit!  Wow!” 

She hastily pulled open drawers, slammed them shut until she found pencil and paper.  How hard should it be to find pencil and paper in a lab?  She furiously drew what she heard.  It wasn’t English.  Could she even assume it was another language?  It had to be, right?  She put the ‘words’ on repeat.  With eyes closed, she drew what she felt were hard consonants.  Soft vowels.  After she deemed it was enough, she looked at her handiwork and to most it might look like gibberish. 

To Lena it looked like music.  

******

_“My name is Kara.  I hope this can reach you.  Your voice sounds lonely.  I hope my voice helps you feel less alone.”_

“My name is Lena.  And every fiber in my being is telling me I’m stupid, but I have to try.  I _want_ to try.  My planet is full of so many people, but not one has shown me a shred of kindness.  Your answer, whatever it may say, fills me with a warmth I can’t describe.”

_“I heard my Aunt and my mother arguing.  I think my planet is dying.  I have noticed our sun looks angry.  Our lands so dry.  Our wildlife is shrinking.  I don’t want to die.  At least not before I ask Rao to look after you because our messages will have to end.  I hope you don’t think I’ve abandoned you.”_

“I keep noticing the same word, over and over.  Maybe it’s your name.  If it is, I think it’s beautiful.  My brother found me in here one night, talking to you.  Or as he put it, talking to an imaginary friend.  He thinks I’m crazy, but I couldn’t share any of my recordings with him.  I just need something to be mine.” 

_“Whatever happens, don’t be afraid.”_

“My brother told my father.  This will be my last message for a while.  I hope this finds you well and safe.” 

******

A sound never goes unheard.  When a planet explodes, even in space, that force is all powerful and sharp.  It pushes with great strength, hurtling the last of itself until it mercilessly crashes into other spiraling bodies.  Green rocks.  Space pods.  Prisoners.  A yellow sun that enhances the body in ways not even remotely possible on any other planet. 

And sometimes that sound attracts the attention of the shrewd and paranoid.  What should be seen as a gift is smeared with disdain.  A young woman watches helplessly as her brother takes on an imagined tyrant and loses.  She sees the destruction he wages against the very people he professes he wants to protect and she likens it to that of a meteor shower pummeling into the earth.  

******

She arrived so many years after Kal-El effectively ending her mission.

******

She turned her back on the Luthor legacy to start her own. 

******

_Present Day, National City_

Lena Luthor happily looked up from her tablet as her favorite reporter walked in looking the very picture of cheer and hope.  She rose from her chair to round her desk and pulled the younger woman into a warm embrace.  Lena wasn’t entirely used to this yet.  For someone to hug her and actually mean it.  To actually look forward to the idea of pulling Lena close to them. 

“Hello, Kara,” Lena said softly, then pulled away shyly. 

“Hi Lena,” Kara said with an easy smile.  As if on cue, the reporter’s stomach growled.  Bashfully, Kara said, “Lunch?” 

“I’m ready.” 

But lunch would have to wait.  The city was under attack.  Another Fort Rozz inductee and they were ferocious and bitter.  The sight of Kara Zor-El not helping matters in the least. 

The DEO was actually doing alright handing the menace, but he had done a lot of structural damage before their arrival and Kara was zipping back and forth repairing columns, picking up people and dropping them off.  Even at her speed, it was taking some time. 

Lena had ducked behind the counter of the bistro and all too late noticed that Kara was gone.  Frantically, she called out, “Kara!”  Her cry was drowned out by the moaning of braces trying to bear the weight of the building above her.  Why was everything in a city crowned with forty floors of industrial steel?  And as it seemed she was once again looking death in the eye, a blur of red and blue whipped by her.  One by one the remaining patrons were disappearing. 

And then Lena was in the air. 

She clutched tightly to Supergirl, eyes slammed shut because she _hated_ flying.  She absolutely hated it and this wasn’t the first time the hero had swept her off her feet, so to speak.  The Super must have noticed her increasingly frantic grip because even through the clouds soaring past them, Lena heard words that she had certainly heard before, a long time ago in a far-off place. 

They landed on a rooftop, well away from the danger, but before Supergirl could fly away she lightly clutched the alien’s wrist.  She asked breathily, “What did you say?” 

Supergirl furrowed her brow.  Then it hit her and she laughed away the misunderstanding, “I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor.  Sometimes I mix up my words.  It was Kryptonian.  I said, don’t be afraid.”   

“Kryptonian,” Lena repeated, as Supergirl lightly grasped her upper arm in a show of comfort.  Lena had not thought of her time at the Luthor Corp Observatory in so many years.  She shook her head as the words ‘save me’ slipped from her lips.  The first desperate message she had ever sent out into the black abyss.  And now she knew what the answer had been in return. 

_Don’t be afraid._

“Save me?” the hero repeated. 

“Don’t be afraid,” Lena said again but in the awkward Kryptonian tongue, feeling completely insane. 

Supergirl stood stock still.  Lena could see recognition now.  She could _see_ it in those fathomless blue eyes and in the forehead crinkle as distant memories filtered back into the present.  And then the Girl of Steel did something Lena wasn’t expecting. 

Supergirl smiled. 

In the next instant a blur of red and blue was in the sky, flying back to the city to finish saving the day. 

******

It was almost midnight.  Lena Luthor was sitting on the couch in her office.  She had long shut off the television wrapping up the details of the latest alien attack.  She sipped whiskey from a damn tumbler and knocked back too much in one gulp.  She sputtered on the liquid and slammed the glass to the table.  She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and shook her head. 

Supergirl was her outer space pen pal? 

It sounded absurd! 

There was a cold whoosh of air and Lena looked up, but she found Kara standing before her.  Her hair wasn’t up in that French braid and it definitely looked windblown, but she still nervously adjusted her glasses.  They were a bit askew, but once back in place, she didn’t seem any less anxious but she certainly looked…different. 

Lena was definitely happy to see that Kara was alright, but that signature rush of wind usually meant that Supergirl had just breezed in through her balcony window. 

“Kara?” Lena said hesitantly.  What was this doubt in her voice? 

Kara’s smile was weak in return. 

“Kara,” she said again as her mind was trying to catch up to her eyes. 

Open window.  Breeze.  Kara.  Her office door was still closed.  Open window.  Kara. 

Kara needlessly adjusted her glasses again.  She seemed to be deciding on what to say. 

“Kara, I…I’m glad you’re alright,” Lena said, slicing through the tension. 

“I translated it later,” Kara said abruptly.  Like a surge of courage had just rushed through her.  She rubbed her hands together. 

“You what?” Lena said quietly. 

“After I arrived I translated it,” Kara started up again, this time her voice stronger and clearer.  Steadier.  “English was odd, but easily learned.  And I began to notice that my recall was incredibly vivid and your words came back to me.  My uncle was smart, but he never thought to study other languages.  And there are so many ways to say ‘hello’ on this planet, Lena.  What were the chances I would land in the very place that spoke yours?”  

Lena listened in silence.  What Kara was saying didn’t make any sense.  For it to make any kind of sense, Kara had to be an alien.  And aliens were old news in a city like this but judging by Kara’s entrance, she was an alien that could _fly_.  Lena knew of only one kind of alien that could fly. 

Was Kara telling her that _she_ was the voice on the other end of their extremely long tin can telephone?    Was she saying that she was Supergirl?

“The first thing you sent to me.  It said ‘Someone.  Please.  Save me.’  I played that over and over, but on Krypton I had no cipher.  I had no way to really know what you said until I landed here.  Until I would lay in my new bed, in my new room with a new family and I just cried.  I cried because I was alone.  And I thought about you and I remember hearing how sad your voice seemed.  And then I thought, I lost a friend I never really got to know.” 

Lena sunk back down onto the couch.  “Kara, I don’t under…” 

“Yes, you do, Lena,” Kara said.  She slowly walked over to the couch, her fingers still tangled together in nerves.  There was a brief moment that the reporter didn’t know if she should sit down or not.  But eventually she did.  “I came over here as me, Lena.  As Kara Zor-El.  Not as Kara Danvers or as Supergirl.  I wanted you to meet me.” 

“Kara Zor-El,” Lena repeated softly, almost reverently.  She studied the nuances of the blonde’s face, the tendons in her neck, the curve of her shoulders and down her arms to hands now balled into fists.  The signature cardigan was exposing just enough of the suit to entice Lena into action.  Her fingers lightly traced the collar.  That move resulted in the slightest hitch in Kara’s throat. 

Kara Zor-El was so very human on the surface, but that was merely a shell for the power contained within. 

As Lena let her hand fall away, she began to realize that she felt oddly ok. 

Relief and surprise and perhaps a little bit of joy.  A flash of anger at being lied to.  She hated liars.  Her family was full of them and her name attracted them.  And Kara Danvers had been so welcoming.  So attractive in her goodness. 

“Lena, please say something.  Like, I’ll even accept you yelling at me.” 

“Why would I yell at you?” 

Kara’s expression grew sad.  “I lied to you about who I am.  And I kept lying.” 

“You did,” Lena confirmed and noted not the slightest bit of malice in her tone. 

How could she hold onto anger in a time like this?  Somehow her stupid Earth radio waves reached a planet that harbored two of what would eventually become Earth’s mightiest heroes.  Lena Luthor was smart, but perhaps for the first time in her life she had actually been lucky.

“But you’re mad,” Kara stated with a surety that almost broke Lena’s heart.  

 “I’m not mad,” Lena replied with as much reassurance as she could muster.  “I’m not, ok?  Please don’t think that.  I mean, Kara.  You just proved to me that I was actually talking to an alien.  I was a teenager playing in her father’s observatory tricking herself into believing that she had contacted another world!  But it wasn’t a trick.  You were real.  You _are_ real.  Do you know how incredible that feels?” 

Kara’s blank expression told Lena that she didn’t.

Lena shifted closer to Kara on the couch, studying her carefully yet again.  “You flew in here like Supergirl.  You wear Kara Danvers’ glasses.  At what point do I meet Kara Zor-El?  Does she actually need those glasses?” 

“If I said yes, would you believe me?” Kara said. 

“No,” Lena answered. 

“Well, trust me, I need them."  At Lena’s look, she hastily added, “They’re lined with lead!  I don’t need them to see but I…sometimes I see things I definitely don’t need to see.” 

“So, you mean…?”

“Yep.” 

“Well, who…?”

“Winn.  Cat.  Winn.  _Again_.  And don’t get me started on Alex nearing the end of 12 th grade.” 

“You poor thing.” 

“It’s traumatizing, Lena!” 

Lena laughed.  She _finally_ laughed.  Because here was Kara.  Sweet, adorable, currently red as a tomato Kara.  She really wasn’t all that different, was she?  Knowing she was Supergirl hadn’t really changed much of what Lena knew of her at all.  Because Supergirl _was_ Kara once she pieced together all that she knew of them both. 

“Even though I couldn’t understand any of what you were saying, I felt better,” Lena said, reaching up slowly to gently pull the glasses from Kara’s face.  The Kryptonian allowed the action, her eyes abruptly shut, as if trying to disappear.  “Kara, please don’t close your eyes.” 

Slowly, the Kryptonian reopened them.  They glistened ever so slightly.  “Lena, I don’t know how …” 

Lena clasped Kara’s hand in her own.  “I don’t either.  But maybe let’s start with saying ‘hello’?” 

Kara tightened her grip in a way that Lena knew was practiced and wary.  An alien with super strength always having to hold back.  To prove that they can be gentle and controlled. 

With a shy smile, Kara said a word that Lena didn’t understand, but she knew what it meant. 

“Hi, Kara Zor-El.  Thank you for saving me.” 

 

 


End file.
